The link between childhood trauma and depression: Insights from HPA axis studies in humans

Christine Heim, D. Jeffrey Newport, Tanja Mletzko, Andrew H. Miller, Charles B. Nemeroff

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

1233 Scopus citations

Abstract

Childhood trauma is a potent risk factor for developing depression in adulthood, particularly in response to additional stress. We here summarize results from a series of clinical studies suggesting that childhood trauma in humans is associated with sensitization of the neuroendocrine stress response, glucocorticoid resistance, increased central corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) activity, immune activation, and reduced hippocampal volume, closely paralleling several of the neuroendocrine features of depression. Neuroendocrine changes secondary to early-life stress likely reflect risk to develop depression in response to stress, potentially due to failure of a connected neural circuitry implicated in emotional, neuroendocrine and autonomic control to compensate in response to challenge. However, not all of depression is related to childhood trauma and our results suggest the existence of biologically distinguishable subtypes of depression as a function of childhood trauma that are also responsive to differential treatment. Other risk factors, such as female gender and genetic dispositions, interfere with components of the stress response and further increase vulnerability for depression. Similar associations apply to a spectrum of other psychiatric and medical disorders that frequently coincide with depression and are aggravated by stress. Taken together, this line of evidence demonstrates that psychoneuroendocrine research may ultimately promote optimized clinical care and help prevent the adverse outcomes of childhood trauma.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)693-710
Number of pages18
JournalPsychoneuroendocrinology
Volume33
Issue number6
DOIs
StatePublished - Jul 2008

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism
  • Endocrinology
  • Endocrine and Autonomic Systems
  • Psychiatry and Mental health
  • Biological Psychiatry

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'The link between childhood trauma and depression: Insights from HPA axis studies in humans'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this